Although a toaster can actually toast pastries, muffins, and a variety of foods, “toast” will be used throughout this document to exemplify all suitable foods for toasting. Toasters generally include a control such as a knob or slider whereby a user can select a toasting cycle time. The longer the toasting cycle time, the darker the toast. For a variety of reasons, the toast produced as a result of a particular setting does not always correspond to the user's expectations. In a conventional toaster, a user must terminate a toasting cycle and eject the toast in order to inspect it. If not toasted adequately, the user must then initiate a new toasting cycle. Because the toast will have been at least partially cooked before the second toasting cycle is initiated, a completion of the second toasting cycle will usually result in toast that is darker than the user's expectation and darker than the initial toast cycle setting would have dictated.
Manually operated toasters are known to have mid-cycle inspection features. The inspection features allow a user to manually lift the toast out of the toasting slot on the carriage so that the extent of browning can be observed. However, when toast is lifted out of the slot in this way and the cycle is thus interrupted, the toasting cycle time is not adjusted accordingly. In effect, the toasting cycle time is shortened when compared to a toasting cycle in which no inspection occurs.
Improvements to the above apparatus and methodologies are provided with a motorised toaster having an automated inspection feature.